You might find this crazy, but I decided that the way to tackle my sons’ sibling strife is to give them more time together. They are now sharing a room.

I think it’s a bit crazy, myself, but the thought popped in my head today and I decided to roll with it. First of all, I’m home alone with the boys this evening and it just made it easier to tuck them in if they were both in the same room. No, hauling the mattress over the upstairs railing and down the steps wasn’t exactly easy, but I missed my workout yesterday and could afford to burn a few extra calories!

Little One fell asleep in the car this afternoon and then couldn’t settle back to sleep once transferred to his bed, so I saw his eyelids getting very heavy at 5:30. Once supper was over, I put both boys in the tub and was aiming for a 7:00 bedtime. Child #2 has come down with a cold (although he vehemently denies it) and his body language has been telling me all day that he needs some extra rest. Apparently he was sobbing for quite a while during the middle of the night last night, and it’s no wonder that he’s tired (I was asleep on the couch in the basement because my poor husband is stuffed up and…well…I literally just can’t sleep with all that racket lately, and neither can I seem to kick my cold when I’m not rested up properly).

So, the story seems to be that sometime during the night Child #2 woke up and made enough noise complaining about cold feet that his sister woke up. He demanded that she get daddy to cover up his feet, and she was so tired that her “eyes hurt”. His belligerence hurt her feelings but she went downstairs to tell her daddy, who was drugged up on cold meds and fairly out of it. He recalls her telling him that Child #2 was crying, to which he told her just to lie down in mommy’s spot and he went back to sleep. At some point later he snapped out of it and realized Child #2 was very sad, but has no idea how long it had been going on and what time it happened. At any rate, people were tired today! I’m thankful to have two sleeping little boys in the next room.

Though I have fair doubt that it will work very well to have the boys share a room, I figured that a trial run wouldn’t hurt anything. Ideally by having to share space more often they will be motivated to change how they interact with one another. Time will tell! I know that I can’t expect them to live in perfect harmony together, but it’s important to me that they learn to complement each other’s differences and know how to enjoy one another’s company!

Related

One Response to reverse psychology

I just have to post an update on this. Though the boys still have their “moments” when they need space from each other, they truly became best friends this summer and shared many happy memories playing together in their room. Now, if they’d just quit excluding their sister!